Black & White Wedding Cake

This cake was much, much easier than I thought when the bride first showed me the picture. The cake settled some during the delivery. A very hot day and 15 miles of bumpy country road didn’t help either. I am so pleased with how it turned out, but the delivery took at least ten years off my life I think. lol

jody130 – you asked for suggestions, so here are a few things I learned on this cake (and some things I’d change next time).
When you ice your tiers, don’t crumb coat the entire tier in white, do half and half. I was shocked at how much of the paper thin coat of white came through my chocolate icing, even though the chocolate was fairly thick. Mark your layers so that you ice them exactly half & half. You’ll be offsetting them when you stack. It’s not important to get the white/chocolate seam perfectly smooth because it’ll be covered with fondant (thank Heaven for small miracles).
Practice with the ganache so you’re comfortable with it. I used a small squeeze bottle to apply. You don’t want your ganache too warm or it’ll run down the side like water. In the origional pic the bride brought me, the ganache ran all the way down to the next tier most of the way around. I didn’t want mine to do that because I liked it a little more jagged.
The last thing I learned (the hard way of course), if you’re going to do the chocolate covered strawberries, use small berries. I picked the biggest ones I could find out of the container and by the time I’d dipped them in two layers of chocolate they were too big to set on the edges of the teirs. I know I’m saying a lot, but making this cake TAUGHT me a LOT. lol

missibakes, thank you so much for sharing your suggestions and thoughts, I will be sure to use them wisely, your cakes are beautiful and I greatly appreciate you sharing with me. Keep up the great work

Jody130 – yes, I transported it stacked. You can see where it settled a bit in the picture. Super hot weather (for western Oregon) and rough country roads didn’t help.
I used wooden dowels. The bottom three tiers had 3/8" dowels and I used two 1/2" dowels down through the entire cake. Did you notice I didn’t mention the second tier? When we got home from delivering, there was a ziploc bag on the counter with the dowels meant for the 8" cake. Instead of those dowels protecting the 8" cake when we hammered the long dowels through the 6" cardboard, they were sitting on my counter. lol

I definitely want to see a picture of your cake when you’re finished. I’m sure it’ll be amazing!

O wow!! I certainly appreciate all you help, I have been nervous ever since my friends daughter picked out this cake and begged me to do it!! Ive been sweating bullets!! I will have to deliver it 30 miles away, so that is why I asked if you transported it completely stacked, the sizes she wants is 16/14/12/10/8, so I imagine its gonna be a heavy one!! I will post them when done Saturday, the wedding is at 6:00 pm, and I know what you mean about the heat we live in South Georgia!!! UUGGGHH